Cleanliness Drive - Kanha National Park

Kanha National Park and Tiger Reserve is well known amongst wildlife lovers and general tourists alike, visited by tourists from all over the world. This tourist inflow has its own advantages and disadvantages. Certainly the local population has benefited a lot and their economic standard has improved with time. Although this has been a very slow process since earlier we had less awareness, even connectivity to Kanha was not very good as well as tourism infrastructure was very basic. But with time infrastructure for tourism has improved with it influx of tourists and development of local population.

Picking plastic and rags thrown by tourists and local people

With more tourists entering the national park certainly it will have some negative impact on the parks environment and disturb wildlife at times. But this in comparison with the awareness created and funding raised for protection and local population is very minimal.


All tourism areas have some issues which needs to be carefully understood and taken care of. Sustainable use of our natural resources and sustainable tourism should go hand in hand and this needs awareness and meticulous planning at all level. Kanha management has done this well and often tourists visiting the park can see and feel the difference in comparison to other national parks. Still, outside the national park especially with tourists and local population a lot needs to be done. One such issue is littering especially of plastic pouches, sachets and bottles. This issue has been raised amidst the lodge association and local people as well as park management many times but still no solution is visible.

Mr. Sanjeev Kulhalli, Director, Kanha Village Eco Resort
Picking up plastic pouches and rags

To create awareness amongst local people and tourists alike we decided to do a cleanliness drive from Khatia main gate onwards. We collected rugs, plastic pouches, etc, and burnt them in the evening. This was participated by Mr. Sanjeev Kulhalli, Director, Kanha Village Eco Resort and Member of Lodges Association executive committee, Mr. Karan Modi, Secretary, Lodges Association, Owner of Flame of teh Forest, myself, Krishna Jungle Resort and other staff and members of our lodges. We also requested the local public especially Dhabha units to take care and not to throw rubbish especially plastic on roads but to collect them at one place and burn after some time. It was bought to notice of all that plastic thrown around is eaten by animals harming them and also pollutes the local environment.


This was a small campaign which we are planning to do for coming weeks so as to create awareness amongst public at large. We will take up more issues with time and try to do our best keeping our responcibilities towards our environment and forests in mind especially towards our national animal Tiger and other denizens of forests.

Tiger - The King of Forest, whose home we are trying to protect.
Kanha National Park

By: Navneet Maheshwari, Owner, Kanha Village Eco Resort